Bezos created and is still recreating a true online empire, the likes of which won't be duplicated for a long time, if ever. By comparison, Steve Jobs hawked shiny little overpriced, disposable trinkets. To equate the two is an insult to Bezos. There, I said it.

BD.

11:44 am October 28, 2011

Dave wrote:

Reading this opinion piece makes me want to correct the impression that some folks had about Jobs being like Henry Ford. Bezos is more like Ford. Ford realized that if his workers couldn't afford the cars they were making, he needed to make them cheaper and pay his workers more. Jobs never cared if anyone could afford his products, none of which was ever original. Bezos constantly works to improve the process that is online retailing. He sells content that is useful by itself, while Apple rarely made products that weren't dependent on content to be useful. Both men, like Ford, were/are autocratic in their management. Bezos is a better businessman than technologist. He doesn't care whether his competitors outsell him on his own servers or not, as long as Amazon gets paid. Jobs never understood this cooperative nature of civilization that makes commerce successful for a larger slice of humanity.

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